Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Reported by:

Are A. Silva

(Crim. 2-B, Group 10)

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

• During the centuries of Chineseand Vietnamese imperial rule,Vietnam’s society waspredominantly agrarian. Itsmajor source of wealth was rice.Although some manufacturingand trade existed, they received

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

little official encouragement andoccupied minor segments of thegross domestic product (GDP).Under French colonial rule,agriculture continued to occupythe primary place in the nationaleconomy, although emphasis

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

shifted to the cultivation ofexport crops. In addition to rice,these crops included coffee, tea,rubber, and other tropicalproducts. Small industrial andcommercial sectors developed,notably in the major cities, but

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

their growth was limitedbecause colonial officials weredetermined to avoid competitionwith goods produced in France.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

After partition in 1954 thegovernments of North and SouthVietnam sought to develop theirnational economies, althoughthey established differenteconomic systems with differentresources and trading partners.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

The North operated under ahighly centralized, plannedeconomy, whereas the Southmostly maintained a free-marketsystem that had somegovernment involvement. Afterreunification in 1976 the North

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

gradually extended its centrallyplanned economy throughoutthe country. In 1986, however,the government launched areform program to move towarda mixed economy that operatesunder private as well as

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

collective or state control. As aresult, Vietnam entered a periodof rapid development. By 2006GDP had risen to $61 billion,increasing at an annual rate of8.2 percent in the 1990s.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

In Vietnam, as in other statesruled by Communist parties, thegovernment is expected to play aguiding role in all matters,including the national economy.Classical Marxist economictheory calls for all major

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

industries and utilities to benationalized and for farmland tobe placed under state orcollective ownership.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Such was the situation in NorthVietnam during the Vietnam Warand initially in the reunifiedcountry established in 1976.However, Vietnam’s economyperformed disastrously in thefirst decade after the war.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Excessive government controls,lack of managerial experience,limited capital resources, and theabsence of a profit incentive allcontributed to the weakeconomy. In 1986 thegovernment launched a reform

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

program called doi moi(economic renovation) to reducegovernment interference in theeconomy and develop a market-based approach to increasenational productivity.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

The need for economic reformgained urgency in 1990, whenpoor harvests and economicmismanagement left millions ofVietnamese facing malnutrition.However, Vietnamese leadersinitially encountered many

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

difficulties in their effort torenovate the system. Amongthose obstacles was thereluctance of party leaders tofurther privatize the economy aswell as a high level ofbureaucratic interference ineconomic affairs.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

The pace of economic reformsaccelerated following theCommunist party’s approval in2001 of a ten-year developmentstrategy enhancing the role ofthe private sector. The strategysimultaneously affirmed the

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

primacy of the state in drivingeconomic development, andVietnam’s economy came to becharacterized as “a marketeconomy with socialistorientation.”

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

In the second decade of the doimoi reforms, Vietnam achievedone of the fastest-growingeconomies in the world. Annualgrowth rates exceeding 7 percentranked Vietnam second only toChina. The country’s economic

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

vitality attracted surging levelsof foreign investment andsignificantly decreased thenumber of Vietnamese living inpoverty. However, Vietnamlagged behind in modernizing itsinfrastructure, a crucial step in

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

making Vietnamese businessescompetitive against foreigncompetition.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Vietnam sought to increaseforeign trade and investmentthrough membership in theWorld Trade Organization (WTO).Following more than a decade ofnegotiations, Vietnam’s entrywas formally approved in

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

November 2006, paving the wayfor the country to become theorganization’s 150th member inDecember.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

The official labor organization inNorth Vietnam is the VietnamGeneral Confederation of TradeUnions, founded in Hanoi in1946. After the country wasreunified, the organizationabsorbed the South Vietnam

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Trade Union Federation. Theconfederation is an umbrellaorganization overseeing theactivity of specialized laborunions in Vietnam, such as theNational Union of BuildingWorkers. By the mid-1990s the

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

confederation contained morethan 50 labor unions with a totalmembership of more than 4million. As in all Communistsystems, the labor movement inVietnam is under strict partysupervision. Labor unrest,

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Vietnam’s national monetaryunit is the new dông, which isdivided into 100 xu (15,994 newdông equal U.S.$1; 2006average). Until 1990 the onlybanking system within thecountry was The State Bank of

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Vietnam, with its headquartersin Hanoi. In 1990 thegovernment established fourindependent commercial banks(for foreign trade, investmentand construction, agriculturaldevelopment, and industry and

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

commerce) and allowed foreignbanks to operate. The State Bankcontinues to perform generalsupervisory functions; it alsocontrols the money supply andcredit policies. The Bank ofForeign Trade is authorized tohandle foreign currencies.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Source:

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft

Corporation. All rights reserved.

Economic Setting:

Vietnam

Gam Uhn!!!

Economic Setting

as we

Understanding

Economic Community

for

establish an

Republic of the Philippines

CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY

Dumarao Satellite College, Dumarao, Capiz

Theme: “Understanding Better the Political, Economic & Socio-Cultural

Settings of Southeast Asian Nations forPeace, Prosperity & People”

May 25, 2015 (8:00-11:30 am)

Campus Library